Flooding hazard assessment of Ballia district Uttar Pradesh India: Causes and impact analysis with environmental management plan

A flood is a natural event that can have far reaching effects on people and the environment. Put simply, a flood is too much water in the ‘wrong’ place! Floods generally develop over a period of days, when there is too much rainwater to fit in the rivers and water spreads over the land next to it (the ‘floodplain’). However, they can happen very quickly when lots of heavy rain falls over a short period of time. These ‘flash floods’ occur with little or no warning and cause bigger loss of human life than any other type of flooding. As per the report of the National Commission on Floods, 23percentageof the flood prone area of India is concentrated in Uttar Pradesh. Out of the total losses due to flood in Uttar Pradesh, 60% concentrated in Eastern (Uttar Pradesh). Due to such losses every year, the development of the eastern part is deflated. The selected study area Ballia District, U.P. India falls in Central Ganga plain. This study took up this research question for the understudied geographical region of Ballia, U.P India. This research paper tries to find out the main cause of the flood and its effect on the study area and make a better management plan to mitigate the problem. In the area the amount of rainfall is high, so the banks of the rivers should not be used for the settlement. The normal annual rainfall is 983 mm while monsoon rainfall is 864.8 mm. The average annual rainfall in the district is 1,013.1 mm. In the last calamity of flood (2013) flood water covers 324 villages and affected 273600 population, in which sixteen people and six cattle died people lost their 3525 homes and 210738 (ha) crops that the cost was about 4.38 Crore settlements and improvement of drainage system. Water harvesting through ponds, structure could be an alternative solution to mitigate the flood intensity and also to maintain the ecosystem services.